Quick random side note: I just finished putting a post up at WaxPorhetoric.com talking about keeping your eyes and mind open to new opportunities. I feel this is quite relevant in business also (my first example over there touches upon that) and it can serve us well all around. You should take a gander…I just didn’t feel like re-writing the entire thing to make it more business-oriented. Any astute reader can make the correlations though.

Now…back to the main topic of hitting our reset button. I recently spent a bit over a week away from Atlanta and made my way over to Santa Cruz, California. Great town…I’ve lived there before. I spent time catching up with friends, doing some networking, checking the local (“local” here also includes Silicon Valley. Perhaps you’ve heard of a few companies that reside in the region…Apple, Cisco, eBay, Netflix, Yahoo! and so forth) job scene, and taking it easy.

Did I get anything accomplished? On paper, maybe not so much. Set up a new blog (too cheesy to post here yet), updated the resume, put posts on two other blogs, networked a bit.

Would I call my trip a success? Hell yes. As my brain cleared itself of more clutter I was able to slam through a few things that had been bugging me. I came up with new ideas for business. I found new solutions to things I was trying to accomplish. And most importantly, I’m full of life and vigor and ready to crank on through new projects.

If you’ve got a full-time job, perhaps it’s time to take a little vacation. If you’re an entrepreneur, perhaps you need to go somewhere too. When you take some time off though, make sure you actually GO somewhere otherwise you’ll be thinking about and doing work. Why bother taking time off then if you’re just going to work?

One key thing I did…refrained from checking my email every day. In this day and age it sounds rather crazy, but if you set expectations right, the world will NOT blow up if you check your mail once a day or so. It was quite refreshing actually.

For me, I think these are the key reasons my reset was so successful:

1. Go somewhere far away…far from your home town – This should keep you from being around reminders of work and home stuff
2. Go somewhere FUN - This will help make the reset successful as your nasty home and work tasks leave the mind and you are filled with the fun experiences at hand. Snowboarding, surfing, exotic trip, good friends all around…whatever it is, make it fun
3. Leave the laptop at home - Each email can lead to you getting sucked into work and suddenly three hours later you’re still taking care of something that can be taken care of when you get back. If you can’t leave it at home, set aside half and hour a day to do spam control and look for emergencies (make sure you take care of ONLY emergency situations. You’ll be surprised at how many things can wait)
4. Make the trip fairly long – What good is a 3 day weekend far away when Day 1 and Day 3 are spent traveling? No good at all. Try for a week so you can actually settle into your new surroundings and immerse yourself into the goodness that is

There ya go…a simple prescription for a fun yet rejuvenating trip that will hit the reset button and have you refreshed and ready to tackle any task that comes your way. I can’t wait to see what kind of ideas I come up with on my next trip.

If you’ve come up with any great ideas on a trip, share them with the world and let’s rock it. If you think there’s something missing from the list, let’s add to it.

Happy resetting!

So just where IS the land of opportunity? Is it everywhere? Is it in special pockets of the country? It doesn’t seem as if you can just create an opportunity wherever you may be.

It can be said that surrounding yourself with creativity makes you more creative. I believe this to be true. Likewise, surrounding yourself with self-starters will help fuel your fire of creating something. We can all feed off each other’s energy, share ideas and help each other avoid problems. It’s also much easier to solicit help (ANY kind of help, be it financial help, work, bartering for work, etc) when everyone has the same mindset. Imagine going to a rigid banking institution and trying to get a loan for some “idea” that hasn’t been proven yet. It’s much easier to do when you can approach someone that has seen other start-ups, that has helped start-ups, that knows what it’s REALLY like out there.

Go forth and prosper. Look online and find the pockets of people and organizations that have the same interests that you do and start shooting the shit with them. If you need to make a big geographic move and you believe in your project, just do it. It’s much easier to do something high tech in Silicon Valley than it is in Death Valley. Not that it can’t be done, but it’s a hell of a lot easier when you’ve got all those tech resources available to you. Charlotte, Atlanta, New York City are all known for their business centers. Perhaps you should give that a try. Hollywood is the obvious choice if you’re trying to break into showbiz.

Immerse yourself amongst others that have that same drive, that same passion, and you’ll be surprised at how much energy you gain from this and how easy it is to get rocking.

On a very related note, I’m writing this all up while sharing some office space at the NextSpace office in Santa Cruz. The creativity, the energy…wow…it just drips from the walls here. I highly recommend joining if you’re nearby or finding a similar type thing wherever you may be.

There’s opportunity out there…we just have to grab it! Surround yourself with good people and let’s get to it.

I thought of all this while babbling about life over at WaxPorhetoric.com. I was thinking about how having this ability to laugh at yourself simply makes life better. I then started thinking about how it’s helped me in business and in my entrepreneurial ventures and thought “damn! That’s good stuff! I gotta share it with my business folk!” So…here I am.

As business and techies are reading this I’ll keep it short and to the point.

How Laughing At Yourself Helps Business

1. Being too serious will keep you from doing things – If you can’t laugh at yourself, you may be afraid to start that new company. “What if I fail?” So what. Laugh about some of the silly things you did (did you really need to buy 5,000 t-shirts for your three employees? Funny stuff…lesson learned) and move on.
2. Laughing at your mistakes is a sign of confidence – When you screw up, laugh at yourself for making some silly decision, learning from it and moving on, others will see that as a sign of confidence and know that you will continue forward until you get it right.
3. It’s easier to accept criticism – This one is two-fold. First, when you can laugh at yourself, I’m pretty sure you won’t get all bent out of shape when someone says “you were a dumbass to order those fliers and put them out in a hurricane”. Laugh about that (I mean c’mon, that’s funny shit) and then take that criticism to do it a bit smarter next time. Also, if you can laugh at yourself, people will feel more at ease to say “hey jackass, that font is atrocious” and you’ll simply clean it up and have something that looks better rather than getting all defensive and shit.

These three points alone help illustrate just how important it is to be able to laugh at yourself in business. I’m not saying you should put on some clown suit and tell jokes at your next client meeting…instead I’m saying you should stop taking yourself so seriously (if you are) and instead laugh at your silly mistakes, learn from them, and go kick some ass out there in the business world.

Out of frustration I too sent my thoughts out into the Twittersphere. I believe my exact exclamation was “Hellloooo. Sprint. Samsung. We Moment users are ready to upgrade to Android 2.1. Whenever you’re ready.”

Moments later I noticed I had 3 replies (one from @SprintCare) stating it was already out.

Whuuuuu?

How did I miss that? That was a fairly silent release (which the Sprint Care people said had a lot of hoopla for. Really? Ummm…no) that blew right by. No emails from Sprint to their Moment carrying customers. No big fanfare on the web. Nada. I’m sure there was some talk about it on the forums but it was pretty quiet in the mainstream press. Plus…it’s still pretty lame that Sprint didn’t bother to notify their Moment customers. Don’t get me wrong…I love Sprint. There’s a reason I have an Android phone over an iPhone…Sprint blows the doors off AT&T in terms of price, quality of service, customer support, etc. I’m just saying’…that was pretty lame…

If you don’t feel like eugooglizing the world to find it, you can find the update here on Sprint’s site. It has the download along with instructions.

So…the upgrade…egads…

Perhaps you’ve read Upgrading the Samsung Moment on here regarding a simple software update that wasn’t even an OS update. And perhaps you’ve read Samsung Moment Update – Part 2.

It’s pretty much the same. The only thing that was different is that I didn’t bother trying to use a virtual instance of Windows to try to install the new software. I went straight to the PCs. Sadly enough, I STILL couldn’t get Windows 7 Professional to install this. A few tries and I went back to my Windows Vista machine that I test various unknown software packages from (yup…sketchy stuff…don’t want to be destroying my normal work laptop while installing various drivers for devices I’m testing from afar).

The process is exactly the same though so I’m not going to bother going through it again. Refer back to Updating the Samsung Moment if you want detailed instructions (along with some possible pitfalls) and you should be good to go.

A few things to remember.

• Take out your SD card. Don’t want to be losing stuff you saved. The update WILL wipe it clean if you forget to remove it.
• Set aside plenty of time. Really.
• Write down a list of all the apps you have.
• Try to remember all your settings (I already forgot the settings for my Mindspring/Earthlink email account but don’t feel like dealing with that tonight)
• Don’t forget to reboot your phone after redoing a bunch of your settings. (ie, I was slowly spiraling down into insanity when text messages were coming in as duplicates on both the stock SMS app and with Handcent SMS until I realized I had to reboot after turning off all the notification setting in the stock app).

That’s all for now. I tire of playing with this for tonight. So far I’m enjoying it a bit better. I’ll talk about that some other time. I have a sick kitty to take care of (as seen in www.WaxPorhetoric.com if you want to see the sappy side of pseudo-geek).

Let’s take a look at Apple history since Steve Jobs has come back and we’ll look at a handful of products that were destined to fail for various reasons.

• iMac – “It didn’t have a disk drive!” That was the main killer there. Yet, wasn’t this the product that got Apple back on its feet?
• iPod – “It doesn’t support Ogg Vorbis!” and “it’s a hard drive-based player, you need a flash memory player!” Do we really need to discuss this one any further? An entire industry has been built around this product.
• iPhone – “It doesn’t support MMS or video. The battery isn’t removable. It’s only on one carrier”. I’d hardly call the iPhone a failure either

That’s just a handful of products that were destined to fail for very specific reasons (in addition to all three of those products being “overpriced” and only for “snobby Apple fanboys”). Now let’s look at the main gripes of the iPad.

• No Flash support – Could be a problem…for now. HTML 5 is getting tightened up and there will be no need for the proprietary Flash
• No built-in USB – Could be a problem…for now. There are adapters, there’s the dock, there’s wifi to connect to your network. Is it a killer? I highly doubt it.
• No camera – People are listing this as a reason the iPad will fail? If it’s THAT important I’m sure Apple will add one in the next release. For now I just don’t think it’s a reason to deem this a failure.
• It doesn’t do what an iPhone/netbook/laptop does – Well, it’s NOT an iPhone or netbook or laptop. Don’t try to compare it to one. It’s an entirely new device for consumers. Would you rather lug your laptop around to check your mail or read an ebook or have an iPad sitting in the living room?
• No removable battery – Do you need one? The battery lasts crazy long even under full use. An extra battery would be nice but it’s hardly a reason the iPad will be a failure
• Touch keyboard – If you really need one you can add one. Again, not a reason for failure. I think people will appreciate the sleek design and not having to worry about breaking keys as they lug this around.

Do I have an iPad? No. Do I want one? Sure. Do I think it’s a miracle device? No. Do I think it will fail? Hell no.

Apple has created a device that does not fit into any particular category. Many publishers have signed on knowing this will be an easier way to distribute their content. Developers are loving the fact there’s another platform to develop for. Consumers are still on the fence but I think once there is a realization that it fits a nice niche between iPhone/iPod Touch and a laptop, sales will continue to grow (they’d probably grow more if Apple didn’t sign another exclusive deal with AT&T. C’mon guys…really?).

That’s just the hardware side of things…don’t even get me started on how much money Apple will make from app sales and other content sales through this thing. A bust? I think not.

Some background on the reviewer (it’s not me). He’s an artist/illustrator. The man, the reviewer, the Spencer Lindsay (you’ll see some of his goods on his blog).

Here’s what he’s got to say:
======begin Spencer iPad review=======

OK.

Full day and a half of using my iPad and I can’t get it away from my teenage daughters – hence the snappy title.

• Battery Life:
  • Absofuckinglutely unstoppable. I’ve had it on for the entire day today, playing movies, surfing the web – ooohhh… the web surfing… and drawing on it.
  • As of 8:15pm, battery is at 65%
• UI:It’s cooler than SJ made it look in his easychair rollout talk. Smooth, fast and responsive without even one hiccup so far.
  • If you have an iPhone or a touch, you know what to do.
• Apps:
  • I bought iWork.
    • Pages: Pretty damn cool. Kinda hard to type fast on the slippery keyboard, but I think I can get used to it. Extremely intuitive interface with one exception: where are all the files kept and why are there multiple copies? Must look into it.
    • Numbers: Seems exactly as useable as pages – I’m going to mess with it tonight.
  • iPhone apps sometimes crash.
  • iPhone apps look a little yucky compared to the “HD” versions of the iPad apps.
  • Google Maps app is shockingly fast and useable. The multitouch stuff really is amazing in this.
• No Flash.
  • I have yet to find this a problem. CBS even has a (FREE) iPad app that lets you watch their shows (FREE) and it acts just like Hulu. I’m guessing that all the networks are going to do this if they like money. 700,000 sold in one day… yoiks!
• GPS, Compass, Accelerometer:
  • All work flawlessly with most apps, though some of the app store purchases seem a little “rickety”… possibly the new API – I know there were some changes between iPhone and iPad.
• Screen:
  • Sharp, crisp and fast.
  • Sticky fingers do leave some smudges though, I’ve had to clean it twice today but there’s been a ton of fingers on it.
• Movies: Awesome. Clear and sharp and very fast to load.
• Books:
  • I’ve purchased one book: Dies the fire, and it’s very readable – The one thing I might add is a “lock scree rotation” button. Occasionally, while shifting positions, the screen rotated on me.
  • There are a bazillion free downloads of all the classics. It felt funny loading Tolstoy and the collected works of Shakespear on it but I did it because I could.
• Mail:
  • Pretty much the same a iPhone mail with more room.
• Safari:
  • Holy mother of God this is where the iPad totally shines for me. The speed is fantastic, the refresh speed of the graphics is amazing and the multitouch to zoom in and out of pages at will is just so cool.

I had it with me at the aquarium today and the reactions were anything but ambivalent. I got one of two reactions:

1.) OMG is that an IPAD!! Want!
b.) Oh yeah, an iPad, I can’t believe you bought one. (editor’s note…it’s an inside joke with “b” following “1″ in our lists)

The naysayers usually say: But it’s just a big iPod Touch…

My question is: “is that a bad thing?”

Still trying to figure out if this will replace the MBP… it might.

=====end Spencer iPad Review======

Spencer then went on to ramble on about what happened on Day Two of his iPad experience.

=====Spencer’s iPad Thoughts Day Two====

Day two.

Left it on the kitchen counter.

In a half an hour, Clan Lindsay had looked up a map of Santa Cruz, checked housing listings, googled images of Lady Gaga all while listening to the new Black-Eyed Peas album.

It’s more of an appliance than I thought.

=====end Spencer’s iPad Thoughts Day Two====

And there you have it folks. An everyday consumer with a family seems to think “yes, I like this machine”. Forget all the “pundits” and “experts” who complain about the lack of a camera or that it doesn’t have a keyboard. This isn’t a laptop for crying out loud. It’s a new device. As I stated/asked in my last iPad piece with my predictions, it’s created a whole new category. I’ll admit I want one. It won’t replace my laptop but it will certainly be a nice device to have in the living room, bedroom, kitchen…

Kudos to you Apple for creating yet another winner and making countless millions craving to spend more money on your devices. Sheesh…anyone want to send me one to review?

Two topics/issues here…the software update and the OS update. First we’ll discuss the OS (Android) update since it’s quick and easy. There is none yet. However…the good news is that there are several reports that Sprint will update the Samsung Moment to Android 2.1 in April. Guess what…it’s April now! When will this happen? Nobody knows…they just said April. It’s probably best to be vague so they can work out as many kinks as possible and not create a bunch of unhappy users if they have to push it back from a firm date.

One issue concerning Android phones right now is that currently there are four…yes, FOUR versions (1.5, 1.6, 2.0, and 2.1). Talk about fragmentation. A new customer has to do a lot of research before buying a new Android phone to see if it has all the features they want, the form factor, and then to see if they’re running an old or new OS. Bad move Google. Supposedly they’ll be fixing this fragmentation issue with the next couple releases of the OS. Wait…what? Yeah, that means there will be six versions of the OS as they try to reel it all back in. Yeahhh…I’m just going to try to enjoy my phone for what it is and see what they do.

Ok…now for the tricky part…updating your Samsung Moment to software version CL14. You saw in my previous post that ist’s pretty much a pain in the ass. You need time, diligence, a list of all your apps (since you’re going to wipe your phone clean), more time, patience, good trouble shooting skills, probably a couple computers…

It’s a known problem that your Moment may not update when you attempt to go through all the steps. It’s frustrating and you may think you’re doing something wrong or you fried your phone. Don’t worry, you didn’t. It’s just a really poor implementation. No matter how many tips and tricks you follow (believe me, there are a million of them on the web. You’ll be using Google to no end finding as many tips as possible) you still may be SOL because your computer still may not want to recognize your Moment via USB. I went through THREE different computers before I was finally able to do this.

My main suggestions for updating your Samsung Moment to CL14:

1. Set aside PLENTY of time
2. Make sure you have access to a few different computers (PCs so far…I haven’t been able to update it on a Mac yet even with a virtual instance of Windows 7 installed)
3. Search the web for at least five different workarounds that people have used, keep those tabs open on your browser and keep trying
4. Remember that your computer may not try it, don’t get discouraged, and keep one trucking

If you’re feeling a bit daunted with all this, you probably should be. It’s not the easiest update around even if you happen to get lucky and have a computer that is capable of doing this on the first run. You’ll still have to go through plenty of steps, reboots, installations, etc.

If you’re getting ready to tackle it, let’s see if we can wait until Android 2.1 comes out. If we can upgrade to 2.1 without needing the CL14 update, why go through all that trouble?

Viva la Android! (yet they’ve still got a way to go before being as easy as the Apple iPhone)

I’ll make it short. I know you’re getting inundated with April Fool’s emails and such. Let’s go over these predictions and discuss:

1. Apple’s stock will continue to climb because of the iPad – Why? First, you’ve got the obvious hardware sales. Next up, you’ve got yet more sales to be made in the App Store. It also opens up a whole new ecosystem with the publishers. That’s a pretty good revenue stream coming in for Apple.
2. Laptops, even MacBooks and MacBook Pros will look like boring business machines – People will look at their big heavy laptops and use them mainly for work and keep their iPads out in the living room for some quick email checking or the bedroom for some pre-bed reading. Who wants to lug a big laptop all around?
3. Computers aren’t just for “creating” anymore – The iPad will be quite a consuming device. Consuming apps, games, books. We all know we aren’t going to create any wondrous app on this thing however we will certainly use it to buy a lot of stuff.
4. A new category of computing devices is named – Let’s look up at #3. Maybe this WON’T be considered a computer. It’s clearly not a desktop, laptop, or netbook (all considered computers). It’s not an iPod. It’s a hybrid of an iPod and a computer…but just what the hell is it? Once again…Apple creates a new industry.

I stop at four. Everyone does five or ten. Booooring! I think however this is enough thought-provoking tidbits to get us all discussing the merits of such. Agree? Disagree? Have stuff to add? Let’s get to it!

PS – I’ve got a few more thoughts but I wouldn’t want to bias what you have to say. After enough people chime in I’ll go ahead and spew more thoughts out.

1. Palm announcing their phones heading to AT&T
2. Samsung is introducing a bevy of new phones
3. A number of Android-based phones are being announced across all carriers and manufacturers
4. AT&T is talking about their network and is also wanting more spectrum
5. Sprint announcing their 4G phone

So what does this all mean? It’s all about the phone again. Consumers want a phone that does more than simply make phone calls and this is clearly evident with the slew of manufacturers building Android phones that will be sold on all the major networks.

Predictions:

1. Palm is going to bite it - Sorry Palm…I love you but it’s just too little, too late. The Palm Pilot was revolutionary. Good job…too bad you rested on your laurels. The Palm Treo was a great phone. Too bad you rested on your laurels. The Palm Pre is a great phone running on a great OS. Why did you announce to the world what your phone would do and then wait half a year for everyone else to implement those features in their phones while you didn’t even release one to the public yet? Now the iPhone is the clear leader and Android-based phones are quickly gaining ground.
2. Android phones will become more widespread - It used to be just a phone for geeks however the quirks are getting worked out, the form factors are getting cleaned up, and all the carriers have them while all the major manufacturers are building them. Hate HTC? Buy a Samsung. Hate Samsung? Buy a Dell. Hate AT&T? Use one on Verizon or Sprint. You get the picture. It’s not just a novelty anymore…it’s a clear competitor to the iPhone for any user to purchase.
3. Sprint will continue innovating - Sprint is the number 3 carrier behind Verizon and AT&T and they know it. They’ve done a good job slowing down the mass migration of customers to other carriers and are doing a good job at getting phones. Their prices are great and their 4G expansion is moving along steadily. These are things that they need to do to stay alive. It may not be enough to push them up to being the number two carrier anytime soon but it will keep the other carriers honest and keep the innovations coming.

Usually CTIA announces a couple cool phones and then that’s that. I remember when the Samsung Instinct was announced. “Yay cool!” and then nothing. The Palm Pre last year…rock on…but then what? This year’s announcements however seem to illustrate something greater, that the big picture is actually changing rather than simply being a show where a couple cool new toys are introduced.

First, some background. I’ve got a Samsung Moment running on Sprint’s network. Love it! Love Sprint’s network, love the fact I’m spending loads less than I would on other networks, and the Moment itself is a pretty darn good phone.

Now for the fun. I got a text from Sprint saying there was “an important update for your Samsung Moment”. (interestingly enough, this update has evidently been out since late January) After clicking on the link it took me to Sprint’s page for the Moment update. Good freakin’ googly…that alone was a mess. www.sprint.com/momentupdate is where it takes you to. Go ahead…look at all the stuff you have to do. Highlights include:

1. It only works on PCs (ie, no Mac support)
2. You must uninstall Samsung USB drivers
3. You must install new drivers
4. You must reboot your machine a few times
5. All your data on your phone will be lost
6. You will have to reinstall all your phone apps and redo all your settings

Lovely, eh? All this…and it’s not even for a new Android version.

Yes…let me gripe about that for a minute. The Samsung Moment is running Android v1.5. You read that right…ONE POINT FIVE!!! Seriously…WTF Sprint? We know there is a 1.6. Droid was released with 2.0. Nexus One has 2.1 and yet we’re still at 1.5? Come on now…

Ok…I’m done…

So yes, this was just some little update for 1.5 that supposedly increases battery life a little bit.

Now for the torture.

Installation Attempt One

No PC at home but I do have Windows 7 Professional installed on my MacBook Pro using Sun VirtualBox (at some point I’ll be giving my review/comparison of Sun VirtualBox vs VMWare Fusion). What a mess. I’ll break it down in simple steps to save time and your eyes.

1. VirtualBox needed to be updated. No biggie…just some time
2. Windows 7 needed a whole slew of updates. About three or four reboots as each one needed its own cycle
3. Windows 7 didn’t think it was authentic suddenly. Had to dig through my software and re-submit the key
4. Installed the Samsung software and drivers
5. Removed SD card from phone and began process
6. Computer could not find phone when connected via USB
7. Rebooted and tried again…still no recognition
8. Searched internet for solutions. Tried unchecking “USB debugging” on phone. Still no success
9. Tried a few more times…nothing

At this point I gave up for the night and decided to try at work the next day since there were PCs to use.

Installation Attempt Two

My main work PC, a Windows 7 Pro HP laptop.

1. Installed Samsung drivers and software
2. Rebooted
3. Went through above steps of removing SD card from phone, blah blah blah.
4. THIS computer would not recognize that my phone was connected to it.
5. Rebooted again. Nothing

Installation Attempt Three

Test laptop – Toshiba Satellite running Windows Vista (I know…I know…)

1. Installed Samsung drivers and software
2. Rebooted
3. Went through above steps of removing SD card from phone, blah blah blah.
4. THIS computer would not recognize that my phone was connected to it.
5. Rebooted again. Nothing
6. Unplugged USB again (also done in previous attempts) and plugged back in. FINALLY!!!
7. Software was updated
8. Went through list of apps I had on phone (that I had to write down somewhere to know what I had) and began installing them

All in all, this was about a four or five hour ordeal just to install a minor update. If Google wants Android to continue to gain market share, they’re going to have to make things simpler. Android is a fine phone OS but it’s still nowhere as simple and elegant as Apple’s solution.

And there you go. All of that work and I really don’t notice too much of a difference. Whoopty do…I’m now running “Build Number CL14”. Like I said…no noticeable improvements.

Hopefully the upgrade to 2.1 will be an OTA (over-the-air) update that doesn’t consume the user’s time and in the process wipe the phone.